


Collide

by sourwulfur



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Human, Alternate Universe - No Hale Fire, Multi, Pre-Slash, family by choice, part time jobs, relationship building, retail phrases
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-04-27
Updated: 2013-04-27
Packaged: 2017-12-09 16:13:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,409
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/776192
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sourwulfur/pseuds/sourwulfur
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Stiles Stilinski and Derek Hale work at the same mall. They go to the same university. However, they have never really met. Sometimes, a simple "hello" will change everything.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Collide

**Author's Note:**

> So, this story was one I had originally written for another fandom, but I've reworked it a bit and decided to throw it into the TW writing. It is completely AU, and the characters are fairly OOC. There might be a sequel to this, I'm not sure yet.

“Could someone please come check me out?” asked a tall, dark haired young man into a walkie-talkie that he had picked up off the register counter at the front of the store, holding his favored leather jacket in his other hand.

 

There was a few moments of silence before a warm, female voice replied, “Be there in a tick, hon.”

 

“Thank you.” He sighed inaudibly as he replaced the walkie on the counter next to the cashier of that moment, Jessica, smiling slightly at her.

 

He then went to wait near the door for Laurie, the woman that had replied to him. “Smoke break, Derek?” she questioned him as she swiftly walked up to him from somewhere near the back of the store so that she could pat down his coat, making sure he was not stealing anything (not that anyone believed he would, it was just policy).

 

“Yes, ma'am,” he replied with a smile and a nod, chuckling as she swatted at his arm.

  
“Get outta here.” Laurie shook her head as Derek pulled on his coat and left the store. “And don't call me “ma'am” again!” she called after him.

 

Derek simply waved over his shoulder in acknowledgment as he continued to walk the length of the mall to the employee entrance-slash-smoking area that was at the opposite end. It was rather far from Old Navy, where he worked, but Derek preferred that landing for three reasons. All these reasons, and more, Derek thought about as he walked, checking his coat pockets to make sure he had his cigarettes and lighter in his pocket.

 

The first reason was that Tanya typically used the employee entrance across the hall from Old Navy, and he wanted to avoid her as much as possible. Dealing with her at school was more than enough. The second reason was that it was better kept with little to no trash laying around, and it provided a more comfortable bench. The one across from the Old Navy had a broken, concrete bench with trash litering the area since the compactor for that end of the mall was out there. The one he was heading to had a nice, wooden bench and didn't smell like rotting food.

 

Then, there was the final reason, which in all honesty was Derek’s biggest draw to the other smoking area. Said reason was already standing out there, lighting a cigarette (which was actually a rare occasion for said person) that was bummed off of a co-worker that stood next to him. The other person was a young man that was just slightly taller than Derek, though not as broad in the shoulders, with brown hair that was kept kind of short and often messy. The guy's Hot Topic name tag was attached to a black and yellow Batman lanyard read “Stiles”, and there were a few stickers from other superheros on it as well. There was a one year pin half way up the lanyard, next to a pin that advertised the new Avengers movie.

 

Now, Derek wouldn't say he had a crush on the other guy, he didn't know him, after all. He just liked to look at him. The other young man was pale, long and lithe without looking scrawny, and had some of the most gorgeous eyes that Derek had ever seen. He almost always had a smile on his face and seemed to be talking to someone. Derek had never talked to Stiles, though he had seen the guy out and about many places, not just at the mall, and in his creative writing course on campus.

 

Derek had yet to come up with a reason to talk to Stiles, not that it was needed. It wasn't a crush. Stiles was just nice to subtly look at, Derek told himself as he pulled out a cigarette and lit it, hunching over slightly and turning to block the lighter from the cold wind that blew. He exhaled a heavy stream of smoke, shoving his lighter back into his pocket as his eyes glanced over toward Stiles at the sound of the other guy's laugh while Stiles rolled his eyes and nudged the woman he was talking to. “Shut up,” he laughed, smiling before taking a drag off the cigarette in his hand, pulling a face slightly. It let Derek come to the conclusion that Stiles did not often smoke, was probably just a stress smoker, but that was how he had started, too.

 

“Whatever,” replied the young woman who stood next to him, brushing her hair back out of her eyes. “See ya in a bit. I’ve gotta get back before boss man has a hernia.”

 

“Yeah, alright.” Stiles nodded and waved to the girl. Her name was Allison, as Derek saw on the tame tag that was connected to her Jack Skellington lanyard as she walked past to go back through the doors and into the service halls.

 

Derek sat down on the bench, focusing on his shoes for a moment before pulling out his phone to give himself something to do as he sat there, smoking his cigarette while Stiles paced and worked on his. The taller of the two reached up with his free hand to ruffle his hair, absentmindedly humming under his breath as he glanced out toward the parking lot. Stiles lifted his cigarette again to take a drag only to curse under his breath when he realized it had gone out in the wind. The Hot Topic employee did a quick check of his pockets, only to find that he didn't have his lighter, and Allison, who kept one on her just in case it was ever needed, was already gone.

 

After absentmindedly chewing on his lower lip for a moment, Stiles walked over toward the bench and sighed inaudibly before saying, “Hello,” making Derek look up from his phone. “D'you have a lighter I can borrow? Mine just walked back inside.”

 

“Oh, uh, yeah, sure,” replied Derek as he lowered his phone to rest his arm on his leg, using the other hand to fish a lighter out of his pocket to hand to Stiles. “Here.”

 

“Thanks.” Stiles smiled a little before turning away from the wind to try relight the cigarette, swearing under his breath as the overhang helped create a wind tunnel that made it nearly impossible to do.

 

Derek smirked faintly in amusement, locking his phone and slipping it into his pocket, and then he stood up to help block the wind for Stiles by standing near the other young man. “Thanks,” repeated the brown-eyed young man face after he'd gotten the thing lit while handing the lighter back to Derek.

 

Derek lifted his shoulders in a shrug while putting the lighter back into his pocket. “No problem,” he replied, stepping away from Stiles to finish off his own cigarette. “I'm Derek.”  
  
The slightly younger of the two sighed softly, enjoying the thrum of nicotine from the cigarette, which helped keep him going with the job he had. It definitely made you start to question your like for humanity if you hadn't already. “I'm--”

 

“Stiles, I know,” interrupted Derek without thinking too much on it until Stiles slowly raised an eyebrow in response. The Old Navy employee laughed softly and gestured to the other man's lanyard with the two fingers clutching the butt of his cigarette. “Your name tag.”

 

“Oh, right.” Stiles rolled a shoulder in shrug while Derek went over to the ashtray to put out the cigarette and drop it into the space provided for such things. “Always forget I’m wearing it.” After a moment of silence in which Stiles took another long and slow drag off his recent addiction, Stiles crossed an arm over his chest as he asked, “Aren't you in my creative writing class? You sit next to Tanya most days.”

 

The name alone was enough to make Derek wince, and Stiles chuckled softly with a faint, amused smile. “Uh, yeah. Room 402 with Dr. Neumann,” Derek answered with a nod, pulling his phone out to check the time. “Uhm, yeah, I should...” He let his statement trail off as he pointed to the doors with a nod, receiving one in turn from Stiles as he started to head back inside. “See ya 'round.”

 

“Yeah,” Stiles replied with a slight smile as Derek disappeared into the service halls. “See ya.”

 

Stiles stood out there only a few moments longer, finishing off his cigarette before going to put it out in the ashtray. He then headed inside as well, only heading to the left once inside the main part of the mall instead of to the right as Derek had done. “Cute,” Stiles mumbled to himself with a slight smile, thinking back about the other man while checking the time to see how much time was left for him to grab something from the food court to eat in the staff room during the rest of his lunch hour.

 

Derek, meanwhile, had put his coat up and grabbed his name tag from the magnet board to clip onto his henley shirt with the magnet strips before heading to the front of the store to find the shift leader. Once he spotted Zach, the store's manager and the person who was running the store while Laurie was on lunch, he sighed and smiled as he said, “Back from my fifteen.”

 

“Right, Derek,” replied Zach as he pointed to him. He then looked around for a moment before gesturing for Derek to follow him toward the front. “I need you to take over for Jessica, here. She's gotta go home, so you'll be main cashier. When d'you get off?”

 

“See ya, Jessica,” Derek said to the red-headed teen as she walked toward the back to clock out, waving over her shoulder in response with a call back in kind. “Oh, uhm, six thirty.”

 

“Right, awesome. So, you hop on that, and... yeah.” Zach nodded, gesturing toward register one, which was Derek’s usual station, before walking off, mumbling to himself as he was known to do. Derek just chuckled and shook his head a little with a fond smile while going over to clean up the cash-wrap, which was the area that the registers were at, as he waited for people to come up and check out.

 

In what seemed like way too much time, which was only another two hours, Derek found himself clocked out and heading up the stairs in the apartment building he lived in, since the elevator was broken, something that the manager had been promising to fix for the previous three months. He sighed inaudibly as he stopped on his floor and fished his keys out of his coat pocket, walking to the right door. Once there, he unlocked it and went inside.

 

The young man was not too surprised to find someone sitting on the couch in the living room, the someone else not actually being an inhabitant of the apartment. “S'up, Dean?” he asked, shrugging off his coat to put up in the closet next to the door, glancing over to the man with short, dark brown hair that was sitting on the couch.

 

“Nothin',” replied the elder young man as he continued to toy around with the camera setting on his phone. “Just waiting for your sister to get ready.”

 

There was a beat of silence as Derek toed off his shoes, kicking them aside; and, then he laughed softly as he asked, “Want a beer while you wait?”

 

Dean was definitely his favorite of the boys that his sister had fallen for throughout the years, and to that date, was the only one that he had ever really approved of dating his younger, twin sister. Of course, he had not admitted that to anyone, though Laura, his sister, knew anyway. “I'm almost ready. Jesus,” they both heard from the bedroom down the hall and to the left, Laura’s room.

 

“Yeah, you wan' a beer?” questioned Derek with a laugh and a shake of his head.

 

A moment later, he ducked with a slight laugh as a shoe came flying at his head. “Fuck you, Derek,” Laura stated, though she had an amused smirk on her face as she entered the living room. “I'm ready.”

 

The elder twin raised an eyebrow slightly when he saw that his sister had toned down the eye makeup she usually wore, and her clothes weren't as form fitting as usual, though they were still quite obviously well designed and perfectly pieced together to be mix-matched in a way that only Laura could make work. Derek did not even have to ask before Laura gave him a slightly nervous smile and said, “`M meeting his parents tonight.”

 

“Yeah, they're in town, and all but demanded to meet Laura this time. So, she can't put it off anymore,” Dean stated with a smirk, laughing with a flinch as Laura punched his shoulder. “Ow! Hey, that's abuse. I'mma tell my mother on you.”

 

Derek rolled his eyes fondly at the both of them, shaking his head slightly. “Get out of here, both of you,” he stated, crossing his arms over his chest, “before I pop ya both one.”

 

After a round of good-byes all around, Dean and Laura finally headed out, and Derek dropped onto the couch with a heavy sigh. He still had some homework to do for his class the following day, but he decided to put it off a bit to rest, get something to eat, and shower, the later two happening when he could find the gumption to move again. Derek could not help but smile, though, as his thoughts slowly but surely drifted from his looming homework to Stiles, the pretty boy that Derek liked to look at. It really wasn't a crush. It wasn't.

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

“Fuckin' hell, it's cold,” Stiles mumbled as he and his roommate exited the dorm building they temporarily called their home. His shoulders were hunched over slightly as he walked next to the other young man, named Scott, starting toward their morning class, creative writing. Stiles sighed heavily as he glanced over at his friend, though it was in an amused fashion as Scott distracted himself with breathing heavily enough to see his own breath spiral out in front of him. “Such a weirdo,” Stiles commented, knowing that Scott was getting on the slap-happy state of sleeplessness that would ease after he slept, which would not be until after their shared class.

 

Scott beamed over at Stiles, nodding a few times while shoving his hands into his coat pockets before replying, “I love you, too, Stiles.”

 

Both young men laughed with bright smiles as they neared the communication arts building, where they quickly went into the warm halls to get out of the spitting snow. “You get your poem done?” Stiles questioned his friend, reaching up to tug his stocking cap down on his head more before shrugging out of his coat.

 

“Mmhmm,” replied the slightly older young man with a nod. “What's yours titled?” He did not bother asking if Stiles had done the assignment. The other man always did.

 

With a slightly saddened smile as they entered the creative writing classroom, Stiles answered, “December 7th.”

 

A look of understanding crossed Scott's face as the two of them took their seats near the middle of the classroom. Just then, Derek walked into the classroom, talking with Dean, who just so happened to be the grad student in charge of their class. “Whatever,” Dean told the elder Hale twin in continuation from their conversation during the walk to the class with a roll of his eyes. “Did you get the assignment done?”

 

“Yes, sir,” Derek replied with a mock salute, earning him a swat upside the head with the folder in Dean's hands. “Ow.”

 

“Sit your ass down.” Dean dropped the folder on the table at the front of the room once he reached it, and then he sat on top of it as well, facing the students. “Right. Poems are due like now. So, pass 'em up, guys and gals.”

 

Rustling of papers, binders, folders and bags, and soft words filled the room as the class got out their assignments and passed them to the front of the room, each person in the first desk of every row getting up to take the row's papers to Dean. “So, what we're gonna do is,” he explained as he shifted on the tabletop, trying to get more comfortable, “I'm gonna run and make copies for everyone. I’ll choose a few at random, and we'll discuss them. Simple right? Thought so. Ya'll are big kids, you can handle this one.”

 

Soft laughter came from a few of the students, Derek and Scott included, while Stiles and a few others smiled softly in amusement before their less-than-conventional teacher left the room. “Dude,” Scott said softly as he leaned over toward Stiles' desk so that he could talk to his friend and not be easily overheard. “Tall, dark, and leather keeps lookin' at you.”

 

“Dude,” replied Stiles, raising an eyebrow slightly with an amused smirk. “Why are you acting like a high school chick?”

 

“I...” Scott paused, thinking about it seriously for a moment before crossing his arms over his chest, sitting back in his sat. “Touché.”

 

Stiles chuckled with a slight smirk, glancing over at Derek, who just smiled faintly and looked back to his friend, Isaac, to continue their conversation. “He's cute,” the brown-eyed young man commented, nodding a little while reaching up to push his glasses back up his face so they sat correctly.

 

“Yeah, in a 'give your mother and faux-mothers a heart attack' type way,” replied Scott with a nod and a smirk. “Not exactly the kinda boy you bring home for Thanksgiving dinner.”  
  


Stiles shrugged a little with a smile and said, “When have I ever cared about that?”

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

“S'up, mama?” Stiles said into his phone, pinning it against his ear with his shoulder as he filled his cup with Mtn. Dew at the Panda Express in the mall's food court. He was done with lessons for the day, and had some time to kill before his shift started. So, he had decided to grab a late lunch at the food court. It was a good day to do so, he decided as he took his tray to go find a seat to the right of the food court, closer to where the Hot Topic was. It was not too busy or crowded, so there were plenty of seats to choose from.

 

He smiled to himself as on the other end of the phone call, he heard his closest female friend, whose name was Lydia, say, “Nothin' much, baby. Just making sure you're gonna be at dinner Wednesday. Jackson’s in charge of food, and he wants a head count.”

 

“`Course I’ll be there, Lyd. I never miss it.” Stiles rolled his eyes to himself and laughed softly with a smile when he heard Lydia scoff on the other end. “C'mon, you know I’m right.” He quickly scanned the tables in the area he usually chose and paused when he saw a familiar face. “Hey, Lydia, I’m gonna have to call you back after my shift's over.”

 

Though he could not see it, he heard Lydia nod a little before she replied, “Alright, baby. Talk to you later.”

 

“Bye.” Carefully balancing his tray against one hip with a hand, Stiles used the other to hang up his phone and slip it into his jeans pocket. The thin young man then grabbed the tray with his emptied hand as well, and started over to where Derek Hale was sitting by himself, seemingly working on some paper while eating. “D'you mind if I joined you?” he asked once he actually got to the table, smiling softly.

 

Derek blinked and looked up to see who was speaking to him, and was shocked to see that Stiles was standing there and actually talking to him. “Oh, uh, not at all,” he replied as he sat up a little straighter and moved his backpack out of the way, placing it on the floor at his feet instead of across the table from where he had his notebook and tray.

 

Stiles smiled, absentmindedly wetting his lips as he sat down “I kinda hoped you wouldn't mind. I hate sitting here alone, and I don't really know anyone else. Well, not that I really know you, but at least I know your name. That's better than anyone else here. Okay, so Stiles was lying just a little. He had some friends sitting on the other side of the food court, and there were a couple people he knew by sight but could never remember their names only a few tables away, but that was all in the details. So, maybe he just wanted an excuse to sit with Derek. That wasn't a crime, was it?

 

“Oh, yeah, I know what you mean,” laughed Derek with a slightly crooked half-smile as he set his pen down on his notebook. “I try to keep myself busy if I’m alone, hence...” The slightly elder of the two men gestured to his notebook and textbook.

 

The Hot Topic employee smiled and nodded a little before reaching over to grab the front cover of Derek’s textbook, lifting it up enough to see what it was for. “Psych, huh?” he questioned, dropping the book back before starting to open the plastic bag around the fork he had gotten to eat his food with. “`M taking that class, too; with Dr. Grace.”

 

“Ah. I’ve got Professor Gregory,” Derek replied with a nod, closing his notebook to rest it on the textbook and then close it as well while Stiles nodded and took a bite of his food. “He's a good teacher, but hard to understand through his accent sometimes. He's German.”

 

Stiles laughed a little, scrunching his face up slightly before swallowing the bite he had taken. “Yeah, I’ve got Prof. Lee for math, and her accent is so thick it's rarely easy to understand what she is saying to us.”

 

The two college students sat around talking until one of Derek’s co-workers, named Dan, came over to them and rested a hand on Derek’s shoulder. “`Ey, you're working shift with me, right?” he asked, waiting until he had been acknowledged and given a chance to speak without interrupting either of the other two. When Derek nodded, Dan laughed softly and said, “Well, we should probably head up there. Due in under ten.”

 

“Oh, yeah, right,” replied Derek with a nod and a smile before starting to gather his things. The hazel-eyed young man smiled at Stiles and said, “Guess I’ll see you later, then.”

 

“Mmhmm,” Stiles answered, finishing off the last of his drink while looking Derek over for a moment. “Looks like it.”

 

The younger of the two smirked and stood up, grabbing his tray to go throw away his things before going up the nearby steps that were only a few hundred feet from the entrance to Hot Topic. Dan raised an eyebrow slightly as Derek stood up, tugging his bag up onto his shoulder before tossing his drink into the trash. “So, what was that all about?” Dan asked as he and Derek started to walk toward the stairs that took them out of the food court to the main level, and then down the long hall to the opposite end of the mall to go up the escalators there to the floor above to where the Old Navy was at.

 

“Hmm? What, me talking to Stiles?” The college student laughed as he and his co-worker walked into the store. “Didn't know there had to be somethin' up for me to talk to someone.”

 

Dan shook his head with an amused smirk and a soft, light laugh that always reminded Derek that Dan was not his age, something that Derek often forgot. The other boy was actually still in high school, but rarely, if ever, seemed that way. “No, I mean the guy's response. It was... interesting.”  
  
“Oh, that.” Derek shrugged a little, stepping into the back room while pausing to hold the door open for the teen, who grabbed their name tags from the metal sheet on the wall, handing Derek’s to him. “Thanks. We made plans for us and some friends to go to the movies this weekend. Wanna go? Movies and then late night IHOP run?”

 

They each grabbed a lanyard from the metal hook near the computer used for signing in and out of their shifts before continuing on to the lockers in the break room. “Uh, yeah. I think I’m free.” Dan nodded a little before shrugging out of his coat to drape over the back of the couch near the lockers, and then he opened up his locker to put up his things, homework included, while Derek did the same a few lockers down.

 

It was not uncommon for Dan and Derek to hang out with a few other workers on their off days. They even had a Facebook page for the store's workers to connect and communicate, which was great for when people need to switch shifts or something of the like. Some of the time, the people who worked closing shifts, such as the two of them, would go out to a Denny's or an IHOP afterward to relax, hang out, and enjoy good food with better conversation. The store really was like a little extended family. It was nice.

 

“So, you like him?” questioned the teen as he put his name tag in place and then put the lanyard advertising the store's newest sale around his neck.

 

Derek laughed softly, placing his own lanyard around his neck before clasping his name tag to the string of it just above the metal clasp. “He's alright, I guess. I'm just getting to know him,” Derek answered, shrugging a little as they both went back to the sign in computer to clock in for their shift. “He's nice to look at, though.”

 

“Dude, _anyone_ could see that one.” Dan laughed softly with a shake of his head and the two of them headed out to the front of the store after grabbing the last two walkie talkies off the shelf.

 

Zach was waiting for them at the Leader on Duty cart, where they would get their assignments for the day, though they both were pretty sure that Derek would be main cashier, stationed at register one, while Dan would be backup, working the floor. Of course, the two of them ended up being correct in their assumptions, and Derek soon found himself asking someone about getting one of the company credit cards while scanning their items, all the while having his thoughts in the back of his mind drift back toward a pair of startling beautiful brown eyes.

 

 

* * *

 

 

“Hey, hey, here,” Lydia said, nudging Stiles under the table before handing him the salad bowl once she had gotten his attention.

 

Stiles laughed softly, taking the bowl while pressing a kiss to her cheek. “Thanks, mama,” he replied before passing the bowl on to Scott while resuming talking to him. “Yeah, that new horror film. Should be fun.”

 

“Eat some greens, boy,” Lydia interrupted from his right, knocking him upside the head with one hand. She had taken to being rather protective of the youngest member of their little group since they were in high school and she had gotten to see how broken he really was since his mother's passing.

 

“Hey, ow,” winced Stiles as he reached up to rub the back of his head. “I've got green beans, lady. What more d'you want?”

 

Lydia raised an eyebrow at him as she crossed her arms over her chest. “I see this, but are you going to _eat_ them?”

 

“I, uhm, uh...” The youngest member of their little family smiled sheepishly as he sank down into his chair a little with a slight laugh.

 

The red-headed woman hummed a little with a smirk in response. “Mmhmm, that's what I thought.”

 

Wednesday dinners always went about the same way. They rotated who was in charge of cooking, but it always was held at Lydia and Jackson’s place. Andy, Scott, Allison, Lydia, Jackson, and their other friends (including Stiles' dad, Scott's mother, Spencer, Caroline, and Lena) along with any significant others all met up once a week on Wednesday night to have “family” time. They really were their own, slightly dysfunctional family. The dinners had been Stiles' idea after the group had once gone two months without really seeing each other due to busy lives. Since then, they all made sure their Wednesday evenings were empty of other plans.

 

“Oh, hey, guys,” Allison said suddenly, catching everyone's attention so that the loud, overlapping conversations would die out. “I just remembered. What's the news?”

 

She focused the question on Lydia and Jackson, who had stated when the first scattered few had arrived that there was big news later. Lydia laughed nervously, though she smiled brightly as she shared a glance with Jackson, her fiance, earning an almost unnoticeable nod from him. “Well, you all are about to become aunts and uncles, 'cause we're having a baby!” she announced, laughing softly at th echeers and whistles she received in response from everyone else. It was a bit sooner than she and Jackson had originally hoped, but neither of them were willing to give up their child. They would make it through, even if things got difficult.

 

Stiles laughed softly as all the girls seemed to attack Lydia with careful hugs and questions about names, the gender, and anything else that came to mind. Meanwhile, most of the guys took to teasing Jackson about being an old man. Stiles smiled as he watched them, crossing his arms over his chest as he took a moment to appreciate his dysfunctional and crazy make-shift family. They all came from different backgrounds and different heritages, and some people would not believe they were all even friends due to so many drastically different styles and personalities, but it worked for them, and Stiles would not trade it for anything.

 

Meanwhile, across town at the mall, Derek sighed heavily as he finished folding yet another pair of jeans up at the register. It was really slow that evening, most likely due to the imminent snow storm. “Thanks for stopping in!” Derek called, plastering on a believable smile as a couple walked out through the main entrance of the store after having walked it twice without finding anything. It was then that Derek realized that something was missing. Well, someone, as the case actually was. His brow furrowed a little as he did a quick scan of the floor around him. The cashier then picked up his walkie and pressed the button on the side, pausing a moment to let it connect before saying, “Hey, has anyone seen Jason?”

 

“He said he was going to clean... something,” came Dan's reply over the speaker a few moments later.

 

Not even thirty seconds passed before Derek heard Jason’s voice somewhere nearby. “Uhm... Derek?” he said, sounding slightly panicked. “Dan? Someone? Help!”

 

Derek stepped out from behind the register, hitting the escape button on the keyboard four times to back out of the screen that allowed people to work the register while looking around. “Jason, where-?” he started to ask, only to pause with his steps as his gaze was drawn upward to where the vents, piping, lights, and some support beams were in the ceiling area. “What're you doing up there?”

 

“I can't get down!” the shift manager said, obviously in distress as he looked around frantically, clinging to the support beam he was on. “Somebody moved my ladder!”

 

With an inaudible snicker, Dan ducked behind one of the universal shelves, having been the one to move the ladder because he had not seen anyone around, and there had been a random ladder left in the middle of the walkway, something they were trained to not do. “Uh... just... let me grab one,” Derek said, shaking his head a little as he laughed before going off to quickly find the closest ladder, which was the one that Jason had used earlier and left his walkie sitting on.

 

Once the Leader on Duty was safely on the ground, swatting at both Dan and Derek with an ad he yanked off the top of one of the metal stands on a nearby table for them laughing at him, Derek asked, “What were you even _doing_ up there?” He laughed again with a shake of his head as he walked away from the “abuse”, as Dan called it, to go back to the register and sign back in.

 

Jason clipped his walkie to his belt and carried the shirt he had grabbed from on top of one of the lighting fixtures to take it up to the register so Derek could process it. “ _Somehow_ , that shirt was up there. I had to crawl over on the support beam because there was a table right under it so I couldn't get the ladder close, and the reaching hook wouldn't... well, reach.”

 

“Wow, just wow,” laughed Derek as he shook his head with an amused smirk, scanning the shirt's barcode to check and see if the price on the tab was the correct one. Of course, it showed that the item was actually on clearance for under a dollar, meaning it had been up there for a long while. “Piss,” he mumbled to himself before turning around to pull out the pricing gun from the cabinet behind him.

  
“Language, Mr. Hale,” Jason commented with a laugh as he started to make a round of the store to see if there were any customers that needed assistance.

 

“Oops.”

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

“One for 'The Woman in Black' at nine,” Stiles stated, reaching behind himself to pull his wallet out of his back pocket.

 

He did not notice Derek walking up behind him until an arm reached around him to place a pill on the counter as the slightly older man said, “Make that two.”

 

Dan rolled his eyes fondly from the other teller window as Stiles laughed a little and dropped his arm to turn and look at Derek. “Thank you,” he said as the woman behind the glass handed Derek two tickets.

 

“You're welcome,” replied the hazel-eyed young man with a slight smirk as he handed one of the tickets to Stiles.

 

“`Ey, Romeos,” Dan said as he walked over to them, nudging Derek in the side with his elbow, “you're holding up the line.”

 

With soft laughs, the three of them went over to join the others that were going to watch the movie too. Allison walked over and linked arms with Stiles, excusing them as she dragged him away from Derek as they made their way into the lobby to have their tickets checked. “So, Hale paid for your ticket, huh?” she questioned, earning a laugh and a nod from Stiles as he subtly glanced over at Derek, who was busy shaking his head at Dean and Laura’s newest “stupid stunt”. “You better be planning on sitting by the boy, then.”

 

“Well, I was before you dragged me away from him,” replied Stiles, arching an eyebrow slightly with a smirk.

 

“Oh, right. Heh.” Allison chuckled a little and released Stiles' arm as they separated to either get snacks or head into the theater.

 

There were still a few minutes until the movie started, but the screen they were going to be watching it on was open and available for them to sit in. Derek and Stiles took seats near the middle of the room, while Allison and Caroline took seats near the top, leaving room for Scott and Caroline's boyfriend. The others in their group were waiting at the concession stand. “So, your friends all seem rather... energized,” Derek stated with a laugh as Lydia, Jackson, and Lena came rushing in, brandishing licorice sticks like swords.

 

“Yours aren't much better,” replied Stiles with a laugh as Dean, Laura, Dan, Erica, and Isaac ran in, chasing them with their own pieces of candy swords.

 

Everyone watched and cheered as the bunch of them continued their sword fight until they collapsed in their chosen seats, declaring it a draw. “This was a great idea,” the younger man stated with a smile as he rested back in his seat fully, smiling over at Derek.

 

The creative writing major nodded in agreement as he softly said, “Yeah,” just before the lights went out and the previews started.

 

Stiles smiled to himself as he felt Derek grab his hand, linking their fingers together on top of the arm rest as they sat there in the dark. For a “not date”, it sure felt like one, not that Stiles was complaining any. The other man was gorgeous, and, so far, nice to talk to. Stiles almost felt like he was in junior high again or something. It was a little unnerving, but not enough to make him pull away. He did, however, gently squeeze Derek’s hand while leaning over to quietly say to him, “If this is anything like the reviews I’ve heard, 'm probably going to squeeze the shit out of your hand.”

 

“Won't hear me complain,” laughed Derek with a smile, nudging Stiles with his arm a little.

 

Derek had not planned on paying for Stiles' ticket, or taking the other man's hand in his own but, they had seemed like good ideas at the time. He was just glad that they were continuing to shape out to be. He was not exactly sure how things were changing between him and the man that had been a complete stranger up until a few days before, when Stiles had said a simple greeting to catch his attention in order to borrow a lighter. The writer guessed that that was all it took, though; just a simple, small thing like saying “hello”. Of course, things were nowhere near wrapping up. If anything, things were only beginning, and Derek could not wait to see where they were going to take him, especially if Stiles was involved. Most definitely if Stiles was involved, Derek decided as he subtly cast a glance at him in the flickering lights from the previews on the screen before them.

 

 


End file.
